Beyond Discrimination: Aspirations for Self-employment Among Muslim Youth in Delhi

Abstract

While it is argued that Muslims are concentrated in self-employment activities, apart from noting discrimination in salaried work resulting in a push into self-employment, research has not explored additional reasons contributing to this choice. This paper employs a mixed-methods approach and through an empirically grounded work, explores the reasons given by Muslim male and female youth, primarily living in the segregated neighbourhood of Jamia Nagar in New Delhi, India, for the choice of self-employment among Muslim youth. The paper notes that while discrimination in salaried work featured as a significant reason for the choice of self-employment, it was not the overwhelming one. The choice for self-employment, rather, was attributed to a number of reasons, the salient ones being the presence of social networks in self-employment in Jamia Nagar, and the social respect earned through ownership of self-employment ( apna kaam ). In the narratives of the women youth, safety and respectability offered by self-employment in Jamia Nagar were highlighted as critical reasons attracting them to such occupations.

Understanding aspirations among Muslim youth in India through Sequential mixed-methods design

“…The comparison is significant for Muslims, as in Indian cities, they tend to be segregated in terms of living space (Gayer and Jaffrelot, 2012;Susewind, 2017) and studies show that this segregation also spills over to their employment (Mhaskar, 2018). This shows that segregated spaces and employment for Muslims are linked (Mhaskar, 2018 andChambers, 2020;Salman, 2022). The depth interviews revealed that attaining aspirations for professional employment in segregated spaces was difficult as compared to non-segregated spaces, for youth with similar socio-economic backgrounds.…”

“…Moreover, while segregated neighbourhoods are important due to the residential segregation of Muslims in Delhi, No information is available on the composition of the Muslim population in Jamia Nagar. 38 I also wanted to obtain the attitudes and opinions of Muslim youth regarding several important issues such as self-employment, the characteristics of what comprises a good job for them, whether or not they receive support for their aspirations and employment choices from their family, the role of social class in finding a desirable job, discrimination in jobs around their religious identity (GOI, 2006;Das, 2010;Mhaskar, 2018;Salman, 2022; for a context for discrimination) and so on. Survey methods using random sampling techniques was deemed fit for this exercise (see Datta and Vaid, 2018).…”

“…37 https://www.cmie.com/kommon/bin/sr.php?kall¼warticle&dt¼20210920150208& msec¼373 (accessed on 02.01.2023). 38 Such as their level of education, the schools and universities attended by them, details about their employment (whether full time or part time, whether self-employed, service/profession or labour, the type of organization the youth works for, whether they are permanent or contractual employees) and so on (see Salman, 2021 for the detailed survey schedule).…”

“…Delhi, did not face large scale riots unlike Juhapura, but has the second highest degree of residential segregation of Muslims across eleven main cities and towns, after Juhapura (Susewind, 2017) and is a curious case. Segregated spaces are important for interrogating aspirations and employment choices for Muslims as they are often concentrated in employment activities in these spaces (Mhaskar, 2018;Chambers, 2020;Salman, 2022). Often the lack of employment opportunities in other parts of cities and discrimination are cited as reasons for the same (see Mhaskar, 2018).…”

“…The importance of social networks in self-employment in Jamia Nagar for its youth respondents cannot however be dismissed. While one argument is that Muslims are pushed into self-employment due to their marginalisation and lack of other employment opportunities (Das, 2010;Mhaskar, 2018;Chambers, 2020;Salman 2020;2022), it is not the only one. Chambers' ethnography succulently captures the feeling of connectedness and optimism associated with self-employment for Muslims working in the wood industry in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.…”